


Not Your Friendly Kansas

by Chyme



Category: Ben 10 Series
Genre: Alien Culture, Brother-Sister Relationships, Coming Out, F/F, Family Issues, M/M, Protective Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-05
Updated: 2016-06-06
Packaged: 2018-05-31 08:28:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 16,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6463075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chyme/pseuds/Chyme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All her life, Rook Shar was never able to keep up with her brother. The one thing she could keep, however, were his secrets.</p><p>Until the day even those fell open.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Stalk Stirs

**Author's Note:**

> Given that most of this takes place from Shar’s perspective, Rook’s probably gonna be called Blonko quite a bit here.

 

She was never quiet like her brother, when he walked. She knew because his ears twitched sometimes when she followed, and later, he always sent her slant-eyed glares over the dinner table, while she fiddled with her fork and plotted revenge. She would sit there and fume, the sweet tang of Amber Ogia porridge bursting on her tongue as she considered smearing dirt from her fingertips onto the precious metal implements he fiddled with in his room, the ones he always slid under the bed whenever Father approached. But then her stomach clenched as she remembered how they shone and caught the glimmer of the stars, how they burnt with this strange polished gleam that their farming tools were never allowed to be decorated with. And she knew then, that she could not bear to take such beauty away.

She never stopped trying though, to close the gap between her and her brother. She watched, day after day, as he leapt and swung his scythe as though it were made for more than that all-important cut that cleaved Amber Ogia from rocks, knowing that to their Father there could be no greater sin.

‘Stop this foolishness,’ he muttered one afternoon, his grave tone rolling out with all the presence of thunder. And her brother, normally so brave and quick, cowered beneath the tired rumble of a sigh Rook Da left behind. ‘Back to work, Young One. You too,’ he added, upon seeing her scythe still hovering in mid-air. ‘Do not follow your brother’s example.’

She scowled and with a sharp swing, forced her scythe down into the coil of the plant stem above, pretending, for once, that it was truly a weapon.

 

\--------------------------

 

Never, could it be said, that she did not improve. For eventually, when she followed her brother, she learnt to leave space between them, enough for her to whisper out his new name and wait until she was sure that the air and not his ears, had stolen it away. But even so, she still pushed her feet gingerly into the prints he left behind, following the scuff marks of his steps, unable to shake that fearful quiver that this show of carefulness would fail to disguise her presence.

She watched, almost surprised as Rayona stepped out into the night before her, her flower crown a mere shimmer of white against her hair. It was almost as if a ghost alit upon her brow and perhaps her brother (Blonko, she reminded herself, Blonko now) felt the same, for he ran a quick finger against a petal, a gentle frown upon his face.

But then Rayona said something, some sweet sentence that disarmed him, for he looked at her, in the eye this time, and laughed softly. It jingled out into the air, a hint of awe in the sparkle of its sound, and his sister ached to have heard this new sort of happiness to its tone.

Quietly, she left for home. And yet during the following days, she noticed that in odd moments when they set off to work, his eyes lifted away from them all, even from the rakes they raised above their heads, to stare at the sky with this almost rapturous awe in his eyes. It was an altogether different kind of joy to the one she heard Rayona prompt from him, and she couldn’t help but wonder how any of them could fit in his thoughts, in those times when he fixed his mind on worlds so far away from their own.

 

\--------------------------

 

The day she chose her name, she could not help but remember the whirl of her brother’s scythe, or whatever he had to hand, and the squeal of the muroids as he sent these things plummeting into their sides. She could not help but remember him as he spat out strange sounds in the dead of night, reading to her (even if he knew it not) all those strange oral exercises in some far-flung language called ‘Engleesh.’ And she remembered now, how years afterwards her people had adopted these customs, finding it to be a useful language, especially when trading. But she kept it secret, that her brother was the first to dab his tongue with it, the first to thread the unfamiliar vowels through his mouth and trust they would come out, unaltered by their fixation on avoiding contractions. She herself had practised the words, had pressed them against the roof of her mouth and felt them take shape. Even Father approved.

So, at her naming ceremony, she remembered her brother, fighting and speaking, and the sharpness involved in both these actions, how both his words and limbs fell through the air and came to a stop in seconds. She wanted to be like that, had practised to be like that, repeating the words, and the moves, again and again. She would be, as they said on Earth, that _quick_ , that _fierce_ , that _sharp_ -

‘Shar,’ she announced without a moment of hesitation. ‘My name is now Rook Shar.’

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yet another 'this was only meant to be a oneshot story!' Started sometime in October last year and then it kept on having a little bit added to it, then another...and another. And unlike another chaptered story (you probably know the one), this is almost finished. Just needs some fine-tuning.


	2. Waiting to Grow

 

She did not like to remember the stormy dinners that followed Blonko’s decision to leave Revonnah and the way even her sisters were lost for words. No, she did not like to even _think_ of it, of the way her Father had refused to even look at Blonko, too unwilling and proud to even say goodbye. But she had been proud too, proud enough to raise herself from her seat after they had eaten, seconds after Blonko had left, and run away from the festering quiet, plunging straight out of the doorway to see that he had stood there and for once, allowed her to catch up.

‘I will see you later,’ she had told him gravely. ‘Perhaps by that point, I will no longer have to see that empty look in your eyes.’

He had looked at her then, his own eyes a little wide. Then he had swallowed and nodded.

‘Take care, Shar,’ he murmured. ‘And take care of them.’

 

\--------------------------

 

She did. She did. She told herself that for days afterward, despite her limits and the way her Father worn his frown as a face. She did _. She did._

 

_\--------------------------_

 

Blonko came back, just as she knew he would. He was both smaller and larger than she remembered, unadorned by the farm robes that once defined him and instead cloaked with material that belonged hand-in-hand with the electronic gadgets he was always fiddling with when they were younger. And he was not alone. He brought with him, Ben Ten.

Rook Shar was relieved. Father, of course, was grouchy, threatening to cast a spell of silence over the dinner table as usual, but Ben managed to shift the atmosphere slightly, simply by virtue of being alien. He used a _back-scratcher_ to eat and injected the conversation with funny words that fell off the tongue with a casualness that astonished her. She was not sure what sort of honorific ‘dude’ or ‘man’ was, but it was enough to make her Father’s teeth grit.

As far as she and her sisters were concerned, he was granted points just for that.

‘Why am I not included in this judgement?’ Young One asked with a frown, bursting into their hushed conversation with his usual clatter of sound.

‘Because you are a star-struck brat,’ Shar informed him tensely. ‘Too star-struck to be even remotely objective.’

Shim giggled at that as Young One’s frown dipped down to rest between his eyes.

‘I bet the great Ben Ten never has to deal with this form of disrespect!’

Shar rolled her eyes and left Shim and Shi to fend off her brother’s stung pride. Dinner had been over for two hours and yet she could still hear Father and his muted fury rooms away, his harsh muttering interrupted only by the quiet murmur of their Mother’s voice, sounding uncharacteristically tired. She winced and went to find Blonko, surprised to find him separated from their houseguest. He made for a quiet picture, standing over her bed as his form bent to run his fingers over the dull gleam of a long-lost project, one Shar had hidden away long ago, after their Father had torn through their rooms one day in a fit of rage.

‘You kept it,’ he remarked quietly, his thumb gently tracing out the rim of what looked to be a nozzle of some kind. ‘I did not believe it still existed. I would have thought Father-’

‘He still loves you, Blonko,’ she interrupted him. ‘And he missed you greatly, while you were gone. He used to come in and stare at the posters you left behind on your walls. And never once, did he ask Young One to take them down.’

Blonko looked at her, surprise touching his feature. It was broken moments later by a quiet crash from the bathroom a few doors down, and the muted ‘oops’ that spilled out in its wake.

Rook rolled his eyes.

‘Perhaps I should rescue our houseguest before Father finds him and decides to tear _him_ down.’

She smiled. ‘That would be wise, yes.’  And yet she could not prevent herself from reaching out as he brushed past her, to lay a hand on his arm. ‘I am glad you brought him with you,’ she confessed. ‘We have not laughed in quite some time. Truthfully, I had no idea aliens were so funny!’

He gave her a wry grin. ‘Oh no,’ he assured her. ‘It is not aliens that are amusing. It is simply Ben.’

 

\--------------------------

 

Afterwards, after everything, she could not track her brother through the crowd during the festival. She thought she spotted Rayona, once or twice, as the long pink swirl of her hair descended through the crowd like a spillage of flames. But there was no Blonko by her side, and no tell-tell laugh being pulled out of his throat by her mere presence. And after a while, Shar gave up. It was her brother’s life, after all, and if he wished to destroy the earlier promise he had made through an open window, well, it was his choice.

She just hoped she would learn to make better ones. And perhaps, she mused to herself, she should start right _now_.

‘I wish to be a Plumber,’ she told their Father in a rush of breath, finding him locked against their Mother’s side as they bartered for a set of crystallised berries. ‘I-I wish to exact justice, on those who would deserve it.’

The dark sky, lit only by the fireworks overhead, seemed to steal what was left of her courage away. Soon enough, she knew, it would also rob her of her brother again, along with his strange new friend. But for now, she told herself, it must not take anything else away, not even her words. She swallowed and met her Father’s gaze.

Rook Da did not smile at her. But he did not frown either. More importantly he did not tell her she was a disgrace to their family name. Instead he nodded thoughtfully.

‘I see,’ he said.

And she wriggled, fought against the urge to hop up onto her toes, remembering back when she was a young one, eager to receive his attention.

‘Father...’ she trailed off.

‘I will consider giving you my blessing,’ he said gently. ‘But not yet, daughter. You still have room to grow.’

 

\--------------------------

 

It took months. And a half-hearted invasion from Incursean forces. But finally, finally, he _did._

 


	3. Brushing Past the Foliage

 

Half a year later, a smoothie, or what was left of it, rested in her hands. The cup was wrinkled in her fingers, battered and bruised by the way she had twisted it in a spurt of fury. To her left, Blonko eyed her, but refused to offer her words of comfort and Shar was glad of it. She didn’t deserve them. She deserved to train until her breath left her body.

Because Kundo had almost killed her. And it had been up to her brother, as usual, to save her, risking his own body in the process. One day, she swore, her fists crinkling the cup into a crumpled mess, she would be strong enough to return the favour.

Then she frowned, lost and thoughtful, as space whizzed by and the streaked lines of the stars vanished past the glass of the window.

She had seen – she was not sure – but she had seen something that struck her as strange. For Her brother’s armour had been torn, stripped away as though it was mere paper. And yet, despite her fussing, he had refused her aid.

‘It was a glancing blow,’ he had admitted, ‘but I am used to such things now. There is no need to fret. Besides, Ben will aid me. I mean no disrespect, sister, but he is more used to ‘patching me up’ after the battle is done. ’

Ben Ten had looked up at this and rolled his eyes. ‘You look fine to me,’ he pointed out. ‘Still standing and everything. Buuut if you really want my help...’ He shrugged. ‘Well then, I’m happy to oblige.’

And then both he and her brother had disappeared, cutting her view of them firmly off by the smooth sheen of a closing metal door. But not of course, to the cameras. It was stupid, a stunt only Young One (now Rook Ben, she reminded herself) would pull, but she had hurried to a nearby control panel and typed in the codes she had spent months memorising from her Plumber handbook. But what she had seen there had caught her breath.

Because Blonko had not been leaning on a bench or supporting himself against a surface like an injured person should have been. And Ben had not been hurrying to unload bandages or even trying to pry apart the lid of a medical kit. No, instead he was standing under the shadow of her brother, that familiar blue hand closing over the thin line of the human’s neck as the fingers reached down to brush against a cheek, before sliding up into hair and leaving a careful ruffle of brown to gloss over the fur.

This hadn't seemed to annoy Ben, though he had swatted the hand brieftly, as though to blame it for distracting him and then he tried to squint at the ruff of white that exploded past the layers of cracked armour plating. He had had to lean forward, a little on his toes as he peered closer, his own fingers moving softly over the exposed fur as though to check for a loose wire. And she saw her brother shiver slightly in response and say something.

Ben had frowned, looking Shar noted wryly, a lot more worried than his earlier cavalier attitude had led her to believe. In some ways, it reminded her of her Father's behaviour, trying to hide things until it was too late to get the people who mattered most, like Blonko, to believe they did not mean anything by it.

‘What is this strange new hapening?’ she had whispered to herself. ‘Oh Brother, what dangerous new venture have you thrown yourself into now?’

 And yet, hours away from that moment of tenderness or comfort or _whatever_ it was, she still felt like an outsider. Her gut ran cold as she remembered how she had felt forced to turn her eyes away from them both, to flick the camera off, just as her brother dived down to leave something wet and glistening against a human forehead, the human beneath arching up onto his toes to receive it and-

She could not continue. It was not her secret to keep, not even hers to guard. And yet, guard it, she knew she would.

 

\--------------------------

 

Training was hard, ruling over a steady balance to her life, and in some ways it was a little too similar to being back on Revonnah, locked in by both tradition and the watchful gaze of neighbours. She could still remember their words and the gnawing, prying nature of them, those whispers following her in the fields back when her brother had first left home. Of course, she was sure they did not whisper anymore. She doubted that _her_ departure had managed to stir up even a single conversation behind the backs of her sisters and brother.

And yet there was freedom here. More slop, more spillage of food in the mess halls than she had ever seen in the orange-infused dishes of home. Weapons, metal, more techniques, more books to stretch the halls, libraries of files that ran computer hard-drives into the ground. For the first time in her life, she could wander freely, without someone waiting to shove a scythe into her hand. Now she could fight and punch and find approval in the eyes of her tutors, approval that had not mellowed after witnessing the superior grace of her brother, such as it had been when her father had first watched her kick out dust into their fields.

And now she had made friends too, the lines of the faces untouched by familiar purple fur. Some of them did not even have faces, at least not ones she readily recognised as such. She was...she was...

Happy. There was far more here for her here than there ever was on Revonnah.

And if she was ever haunted by the memory of what she saw, of the strange courtship ritual her brother had been engaged in, his hands as careful on Ben’s skin as they were years ago, on the gleam of his metal toys-  

No. She was learning too much here, to be shocked by that.

 


	4. The Calm Before...

 

‘So,’ she said, hand propped into her chin, ‘you were made a Magister and not six weeks later, saved the entire universe from destruction?’ She shook her head and smiled. ‘Blonko, you should call me more often. I am always hearing about these things second-hand, from people who do not even know you.’

Blonko frowned at her, the twist in his expression making him appear even grainier. A second later his entire face fluttered, wobbling out into a violet blob before Shar cursed and twisted a knob on a nearby monitor.

‘Where even are you?’ she asked, exasperated. ‘The liquid crystal display keeps treating your face as though it is a part of what humans label as ‘modern art.’

Both his expression and the screen suddenly cleared, and she jumped, startled by the amused fondness she saw blooming there.

‘It will not hurt you to use the acronym,’ he informed her primly. ‘I find saying LCD to save a great deal of time.’

She narrowed her eyes. ‘I have not become as accustomed to Earth as you have, Blonko,’ she said tersely, making him frown again.

‘What do you mean by that?’

She sighed. ‘When was the last time you spoke to Rayona?’ she asked, her voice purposely quiet and she hoped, non-confrontational.

He stiffened at that. ‘Why should that matter? Do you miss spying on us that much?’

‘So you _have_ ended your relationship?’ she said, more to herself than to him, ‘When? How did I miss this?’

Now Blonko truly looked impatient. ‘Shar, I hate to be rude, but this is-’

‘Blonko,’ she said carefully, wrapping her fingers together into a muddled nest, a small, sloppy prayer sign that she could not seem to keep straight and true. ‘I know, brother. I know who you are romantically entangled with.’

At that he froze, as though she had woven magic with her words. Without thinking, she reached out towards the screen before feeling chastened, seconds later, by the flicker of the monitor. And softly, she drew her hand back.

‘Blok-’

‘Do not tell Father,’ he told her swiftly, and it _hurt_ to see the sudden anxiety spring into his eyes. It hurt even more to hear him then add softly, almost as an afterthought, a very tentative: ‘ _please_.’

She shook her head. ‘Do not make me fight your battles for you, Blonko,’ she says. ‘This, for you, I cannot do. I only wish to know why.’ She smiled and hoped Blonko would not read the wobble in it as a shake of her faith of him. ‘And no, I will not tell Father. I am concerned. Not vindictive.’

Blonko stared at her, his lip drawn back under his teeth. He gnawed on it slightly then began to speak. ‘Ben is not...I cannot explain, will not justify, why I am with him and not someone I am sorry to have hurt.’

‘But you seemed so happy with her!’ Shar broke in softly. ‘She made you smile and laugh, at a time when I feared all enjoyment in life would flee from your eyes.’

‘Yes,’ said Blonko, and she was sure she was not imagining the strain in his voice. ‘She did. And I will always be fond of her for that.’ Then he sighed, a slightly bitter smile sweeping over his face. ‘But do you believe that I would be with someone else if they did not offer me any sort of new happiness?’ He stared at her. ‘Shar. If I had never left Revonnah, would you still have been happy to remain? With or without Father’s blessing?’

His voice swept through her, setting her nerves alight.

‘I do not know,’ she whispered. ‘I might still have tried to leave. But, honestly, I am not sure if I would ever have been brave enough to succeed.’

The words he left her with afterwards touched her, keeping her awake long after they were done, the static helping to fill the screen and all the light-years in-between them.

 _‘I would have been just as brave had I not met Ben, I think. But as happy? No, of that, I not am convinced I would  be._ ’

 

\--------------------------

 

Shar wanted to be these things, both brave and happy. But it was hard, sometimes, with sweat soaking her fur and adrenalin forcing her breath out in uneven chunks. She spat out a mouthful of blood and rearranged her fists into weapons.

‘Decease villain! ’ She snapped out. ‘There is nowhere left to run.’

The girl in front of her nodded sadly, her legs draped over the crumbling mass of some large hulking beast as though it were more cushion than creature. Its drool was green, Shar noted with no small level of disgust, for never, had she thought to encounter something worse than a muroid. And yet here this nightmare was, in front of her and drooling, his breath rubbing waxy vapour into the line of her boots.

‘Ah, that’s righ’ plumber gal. My dear ol’ pa, only gone and blowed up our only means of transportation. ’ The girl sighed. ‘’Tis a bad habit of his, that’s what it is.’

Shar narrowed her eyes and walked forward, fists still held up in front of her face.

‘No one told you to break into this academy,’ she ground out from between gritted teeth. ‘No one forced you to come here. You have no one to blame but yourself.’

In the background she could hear a few other students yelling, the sounds of plasma hitting the walls as trainee weapons were discharged in rapid succession.

‘Aw,’ said the girl, ‘you all’s tryin’ to hit ma brother. That’s not so nice a thang to do.’

‘It is not nice to steal things either,’ Shar bit out tensely, ducking down as the girl swept her leg through the space her head had been moments before. And then, with no further thought, she leapt up with a cry, her hand flattening out from a fist into an open palm strike.

‘Ow!’ The girl (a Vreedle, Shar reminded herself, a ruthless criminal) went crashing to the floor, her hand coming up to cradle her head as her pigtails swept through her fingers. ‘That’s not so nice either, kitty. ’ She frowned, bleary-eyed as she peered up towards Shar.

Shar, meanwhile, was busy trying to wrestle her handcuffs free from one of the wiggling tendrils the creature was currently thrusting at her. She grimanced as she heard the tell-tell clink of the metal closing around the slimy limb, thankful that her fingers could only make contact with the said sliminess through her gloves and not her actual fur. But then she brightened, an idea striking her as her hand managed to reach down to battle with one of the pockets on her belt.

‘Say, Missy-Kitty, you look a lot like this tall plumber man, I ran into on Earth a while back. You even have the same cute white ruff of fur on your face. He your husband?’

Shar shuddered and threw herself away from the tendril, the handcuffs coming free with a quick metallic clink as she finished jamming her nail file into the screws. This would be much easier if I had proper plumber issued cuffs, she thought, quickly leaping away from the new crater a twenty-foot tentacle had randomly decided to punch into the floor. She winced as it missed her thigh, a quick breeze from the motion running a slight ruffle through the fur on her face.

‘Ah no,’ said the Vreedle girl, whose name (something to do with a shape, Shar dimly remembered), escaped her memory. ‘That’s righ’. He said he had a girlfriend. You her, lettle Missy-Kitty? ’Cos he seemed a lettle soft on me. ’

Shar saw red. With a single thrust of muscle, she rammed her knee right into the curve of the criminal’s spine, before pushing the girl’s hands round into the small curl of space there. Then with a grim sort of satisfaction churning in her gut, she looped the handcuffs tightly round the sturdy wrists before her with a decisive click.

‘I _don’t_ know what form of beast tamer you may be,’ she hissed, the very hair on her head flaring out into bristly waves, ‘but if what you say is true, then I will hasten to make sure that my brother never falls prey to your spell again.’

At that, the fight seems to fall out of the criminal’s shoulders and her wrists fell limp inside Shar’s hold, their weight cradled firmly by the cool metal of the handcuffs.

‘Aw, that’s different,’ Isosceles Right Triangle said, somewhat sulkily. ‘You should have said somethang earlier. I wouldn’t have teased ya so much, Missy-Kitty, if I’d known he were family.’

 

\--------------------------

 

‘I even used a contraction! ’ she told Blonko later, in excitement. ‘And my teachers were impressed enough to move up the date of my final exam!’

He gave her a tight-lipped smile, the screen behaving for once, as it spun out the crisp lines of his face.

‘That is wonderful news indeed,’ he said. ‘I am only thankful that the Vreedles did not blow up your academy the way they did mine.’

‘Honestly, I do not think Isosceles had much interest in explosions in the first place,’ Shar said, her eyes narrowing on seeing the way he flinched at the name. ‘She seemed more enamoured with the exotic collection we had confiscated from a travelling salesman a few days ago.’

There was a sudden laugh from the background and Ben’s face broke into the screen, his hair suddenly smashing its way onto Blonko’s shoulder. The crash of motion made it flare out slightly, curling into a smoosh of brown against the lines of armour and Blonko immediately stiffened while Ben ignored him, a smoothie straw leaving his lips as he observed Shar with a pleased gleam in his eyes.

‘Yep! ’ He said cheerfully. ‘Sure sounds like them!’

‘Ben...’

Ben ignored her brother, choosing to peer more closely at the screen from his side of the universe.

‘So you're closer to graduating? Congratulations! By the way, how’d it feel to take down your first actual criminal? Pretty good, right?’

Shar smiled. ‘It felt wonderful! Like striking down the first fruit of harvest!’

‘Well, if you say so...’

‘Please, Ben,’ said Blonko, attempting to gently push Ben away from the screen, though perhaps with not as much strength as he could have. ‘I am trying to have a conversation with my sister.’

‘Yeah, your sister who kicks ass!’

Shar nodded sagely. ‘Yes, I am becoming quite well-versed in the kicking of the butt.’ Then she brightened. ‘I have even managed to unlock that special combo you told me about in level seven of Sumo Slammers: Whirling Fists Unite!’

Blonko instantly jerked back as though he had been shot, turning to cast an appalled gaze at Ben. ‘You introduced my sister to that wretched game!!!’

‘Hey, she was the one who rang me up about it first!’ Ben argued back, thoroughly uncowed by the look he received in response. ‘Besides, she’s pretty good at the multiplayer aspect of it whenever we manage to get on the Extranet at the same time.’

Shar beamed. ‘Yes, I was reading his file-’

‘Of course you were... ’

‘And it mentioned his liking for the franchise, so I become most curious. I would...hesitate to call myself a fan of the TV show, but I enjoyed the movies and the game-play in the corresponding games was most addictive.’

Ben gave her a fond look and shook his head. ‘One day, I’m gonna get you to sit down with me and watch the entire first season. That’s how you’ll get hooked. It’s no good just watching a random episode here and there.’

Blonko, at this point, was gazing between the two of them, a look of horror growing on his face.

‘Cheer up buddy!’ Ben said, upon noticing his discomfort. ‘Your sister has great taste. You should be proud!’ He laughed lightly as he bent back, just enough for him to twist his arm round and reach up to rub his fingers against Blonko’s chin.

Shar immediately started to imitate coughing up a hairball. ‘Ack! Please stop.’

‘Yeesss,’ whined Blonko, his eyelids drooping slightly as he leant down into the touch. ‘My sister is right. This is most...most improper...’

‘You sound real convincing, dude,’ Ben muttered, taking his fingers away in a final whisk of movement, one that left a small tuff of black fur hanging loosely from Blonko’s chin like some upturned leaves. Blonko blinked at him sleepily for a few moments, before abruptly jerking away with a glare.

‘Ben!’

‘What! You enjoyed it, right?’

‘A little too much,’ Shar broke in carefully. ‘Though perhaps this is what Isosceles did to you when you last met? She mentioned that you seemed a little soft on her.’

For a moment both boys stared blankly at her. Then Ben burst out laughing, while Blonko continued staring at her, the look of a condemned man in his eyes.

‘Though... ’ Shar continued, letting a trace of the mischief touch the smile she could feel on her face. ‘She did mention how you said you still had a girlfriend...’

Ben stopped laughing. And then turned with a slight scowl to wait for the words to fall out of Blonko’s mouth.

Blonko, for his part, winced. ‘That...that was quite some time ago! And you, _we_ agreed not to be public with each other. And I had, that is to say, I felt compelled to say something! Anything! It was quite a trying experience for me, I will have you know!’

‘Psych!’ said Ben, the scowl on his face quickly morphing into a smirk. ‘Dude, I _know_. I just wanted to see you squirm.’

‘Like a worm on a hook,’ Blonko said dryly, his arm wrapping round Ben’s waist in a punishing squeeze. ‘You might want to hang up now, Shar,’ he added, his eyes fixed on the now uncomfortable look on his boyfriend’s face. ‘I have just now discovered a private errand I must currently attend to.’

‘Is that what we’re calling it, now?’ Ben muttered, struggling playfully in Blonko’s hold, his shirt wrinkling from the groves the large fingers were busy cutting into the waistband.

Shar however, decided to take her brothers words to heed, rapidly clicking the ‘disconnect call’ option with a quick sigh of relief.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought it would be slightly poetic to have Shar apprehend the criminal that gave Blonko such trouble in the series, lol.


	5. ...the Storm

 

The happiness did not last. Of course not. Because Father found out. Not from Shar’s lips, oh no, but from the fumbling words of her brother. His honesty, his need to be upfront with his family, while usually such a praiseworthy trait, especially for a Revonnahgander, was on this occasion quite a ‘game-changer' as Ben would say.

‘Shar! Shar!’

And Shar was left to stare down into the face of Rook Ben, feeling something in her gut curl, low and angry, as his eyes glimmered, strangely watery through the blend of electric colours.

‘Mother will not stop crying,’ he confessed, his voice hushed and scared and _oh_ , Shar felt her anger bleed right through her for that. ‘And Father is...Father will not stop pacing, like a Muroid in heat. He goes out to work and comes back in, without a word. And Shim and Shi are weird. Because they say that Blonko is weird and that Ben Ten broke him.’

Shar gripped hold of the very edge of the screen and breathed hard. It was not all their fault, she told herself. Her sisters were young, underexposed to the universe. If she had been a little younger herself, she might have in her fear, swallowed up all the beliefs her parents held to be true.

‘No,’ she said firmly. ‘Blonko is not broken. He is in love, the same way he once was with Rayona. Perhaps even more than that. The only difference this time, is in the species and the gender. And considering how large the universe is, well, the difference to me seems very small indeed.’ Then she forced herself to smile. ‘And to you too, brat,’ she added, trying to sound as breezy and unconcerned as possible. ‘Otherwise you would be huddled with our other siblings, trying to start a ‘Blonko is weird’ club.’

‘Actually Shar, at this stage, it is starting to resemble a cult.’ He nervously peered behind him. ‘Unthinkable! Shim is attempting to work a magic spell as we speak.’

Shar cursed to herself. ‘Perfect. All we need. Now all Mother has to do is walk out, see her and blame Blonko or the other Ben for corrupting the rest of the fam-’

At that point a scream echoed out of the monitor.

‘Too late,’ Rook Ben told her, eyes downcast. ‘Mother just walked out of her room for the first time in two days.’ 

Shar groaned.

 

\--------------------------

 

Within the hour she had applied for a leave of absence. When asked why, she narrowed her eyes and bit out, ‘family crisis.’

 

\--------------------------

 

Her family, when she arrived, was a mess. Shim had taken to walking the fields, wearing ridiculously loose sleeves and muttering made-up curses at the small beetles that roamed the land. Shi, on the other hand, was busy scrubbing pots and pans with their mother, pretending everything was alright. And Rook Da, their proud father, was sitting in his place as head of the table, staring down at his polished reflection in the resin.

Shar found herself walking up to him and pointedly sliding into the seat Blonko usually took by his side.

‘Father,’ she said, well aware of her little brother’s eyes anxiously fastened on them both from his hiding spot on the upstairs balcony. ‘You look weak and weathered by ill fortune.’ Then she hesitated. ‘Where is Blonko?’

He shuddered as though he had been struck, turning his face away, either in revulsion, or, Shar hoped, in shame. ‘He left days ago. I do not care to know where.’

‘His ship is still outside, in the docking bay,’ Shar said gently, her hand reaching out to settle over his own. She was surprised at how thin his fingers felt, for they had always dwalved her own. But now, under her probing touch, they fell under her bones like a line of stones, resembling the small pebbles that had been washed down the river to be eroded in the rough and tumble of its muddy bed. ‘Blonko is still here on Revonnah.’ She spoke quickly and carefully. ‘Your words still have time to reach him. So go out there, Father and find him. He does not want your curses, Father, and perhaps not even your blessing. He just wants you to know him.’

Her father snorted. ‘To know him and his _partner,_ both.’

‘On many worlds, the word 'partner' can share meaning with the word 'lover', yes,’ Shar relied evenly. ‘That does not make it dirty.’

Her Father looked at her. There was something in his eyes. Not despair, not exactly. But a quiet plea, none the less.

‘Shar,’ he said. ‘You cannot ask me to-’

‘I do not ask,’ Shar interrupted, feeling strangely brave. ‘I demand.’ She straightened, her hand flowing away from his own, as smooth as water. ‘Father,’ she declared. ‘By the dwindling light of our suns, by the peaks of our hills where we grow that which sustains us, I cast out the roots that let me grow. I revoke the name of Rook, and my place in this family until Blonko, _Rook_ Blonko, is made to feel welcome again.’

There were gasps at this statement, lost utterances of breath that echoed out from under the panels of their roof. Too many by far, to belong solely to Rook Ben.

Her Father trembled. ‘You would cast us out of your lif-’

‘No,’ she interrupted again. ‘I cast myself out. To support my brother.’ She stared down at her father, at his open jaw and the astonished rage in his eyes. ‘I may reconsider this,’ she finished softly, ‘but not yet. Because Father, like someone I used to respect once told me, you still have room to grow.’

 

\--------------------------

 

She was surprised she made it out of that house unaccosted. Still, it took her everything she had to make her knees work, to force them not to shake as they took her out past the doorway and into the fields she had thrown herself down into over the years, the many scraps and bumps she had earned from them seeming to settle into her throat instead.

There was only one place she could think of to go.

 

 


	6. A Snake In The Soil

 

Rayona greeted her at her doorway, eyes slanted and unafraid.

‘I wondered when someone would show up to coax him from my hearth,’ she said coolly. And though she no longer held the title of Blonko’s lover, she held herself tall and straight, the shadows from outside somehow avoiding the light that spilled out through the cracks of space her silhouette allowed, much like a magic spell.

Shar gulped. Shim would be jealous, she thought.

‘I am surprised however, that it is not Ben here instead of you,’ Rayona continued as a sudden draft caught her hair, forcing it to run out against the night like a flame.

Beautiful, Shar thought, as she watched Rayona crossily brush it back with her fingers, and then she shook her head with a helpless laugh. To her ears it sounded too high-pitched and runny, like ripened honey from the inside of an Amber Ogia skin.

‘Oh no,’ she finally spoke, ‘you know my brother too well for that, Rayona. He would never bring Ben with him, not if that offered an easier target for my family to express their anger against.’ She quietened for a moment. ‘Besides,’ she said, ‘’if Ben knew what he had come here to do, I am sure he would never have let my brother come alone. He does not seem the sort.’

Rayona raised her eyebrows. ‘Ah yes, he mentioned that you and Ben were now...what is the word? Tight?’

‘In a manner of speaking,’ said Shar stoutly. ‘Now will you allow me to see my brother?’

Rayona watched her for a moment. ‘Blonko and I were friends long before we become what we are now,’ she warned. ‘If you hurt him-’

‘I have renounced my family name,’ Shar cut in, ‘and informed my Father that I will not take it back until he allows Blonko to cross over their threshold once more.’

There was no time for Rayona to gasp, to stagger back at this transgression. Because Blonko was suddenly there, nearly ripping off the door hinges as all of him filled in the frame, eating up all the space Rayona’s thin form had allowed to seep through.

‘Shar,’ he gasped, and she had enough time to see the distortion of ripped fur on his cheek and the quick rugged  patch that meant blood had been allowed to dry there, before his voice cut across, firm and clipped. ‘Shar, _no_ , you cannot do that, I will not allow you to cast-’

But then she was there, crashing into his chest despite the fact that his arms, for once, were not open to hold her.

‘ _I’m_ here Blonko,’ she murmured. ‘ _I’m_ here, and you cannot make me go away. You will not lose me, not this time.’

For a moment his voice cut out. Then he trembled and with a start, his arms came up to knock against her sides. And they continued to shiver there, against her sides and the sharp curves of her shoulders, until she stepped forward, forcing him back into the warmth of Rayona’s home.

 

\--------------------------

 

They talked of nothing. Everything. Shar listed all the textbooks she had been flipping through before her next major exam, while Blonko dutifully nodded and added the names of a few titles he felt would be helpful. Rayona, meanwhile, sat between them, coolly sipping a glass of Ogia tea, and despite herself, Shar felt her nose twitch. Was that the scent of Plumbia blossoms scattered in there? Oh my. Rayona _was_ adventurous.

‘I do not see why a book on human psychology should be amongst that list of study materials.’

Shar started as Rayona's voice slipped out, smooth as the liquid she drank, and she glanced over, feeling wary at the amusement that sprang to life in the orange eyes that turned to meet her own.

‘There is no guarantee your sister will be stationed on Earth, after all. And an even lesser chance that the partner she will be assigned with will be human.’

Blonko blinked. ‘True,’ he allowed. ‘But humans, as a species, have gradually been claiming more importance within the universe over the last few years-’

‘Only because one of them is wearing the Omnitrix-’

‘And,’ Rook cut in firmly, ‘it would be beneficial to at least have Shar try and understand them.’

Now it was Shar’s turn to blink. ‘Blonko,’ she said slowly, ‘I have video calls with Ben at least twice a week. If I can deal with that, I can most certainly deal with other humans.’

Rayona tactfully turned her head away, nuzzling her mouth politely into her sleeve and Shar narrowed her eyes as those zig-zagged ends pushed out in a streak of motion, as though the wind had suddenly stirred them. Was Rayona laughing?

Blonko must have noticed too, because his eye twitched.

‘My lover is a human,’ he said, his voice dangerously low, ‘and my family, of which my sister has now made herself a voluntary outcast, may well never accept this. _I_ might have to take up permanence residence on the Earth, if worse comes to worse, and Shar may be forced to do something similar.’

Rayona looked at him with pity in her eyes. ‘Oh Blonko,’ she murmured, carefully nursing her glass in her hand, ‘were you ever truly intending to settle down on Revonnah? Could you, after everything you have seen and done, been happy making a life here? Would you have flown in every month or so to see our possible children before leaving for a new mission?’ She placed her glass down on a nearby table with an elegance that seemed to slice through the air like a knife, the quiet chime ringing out like a warning. ‘And perhaps more importantly, would you have asked Ben to build a home with you here? Or is he expecting you to simply, as you say, take up permanent residence on Earth?’

‘Stop,’ Rook said. ‘You are twisting this. I simply wished to have a choice, not to have it stripped from me without ceremony. And my family, rejecting me, robs me of that...that _illusion_. Besides- ’Rook glanced down, something bitter entering his eyes,  ‘there are people, well-meaning people, telling Ben that the best version of his future does not include me in it the way we may perhaps both wish.’

Rayona glanced down. And Shar glanced between the two of them, watching the way their gazes became rooted in the floor like mould. Then, without a word, she reached for Rayona’s half-full glass and tilted the rest of the tea down her throat, the spice from the Plumbia petals setting her throat alight. She paused, feeling it stir her taste-buds with the same bitter sting the dark chocolate of Earth liked to poke her tongue with, before she finally felt a little peace.

A quiet invigoration, she thought, for all the work that lay ahead.

 

\-------------------------- 

 

Later that night, as her brother tossed and turned away from Rayona, on the soft sponge-like chairs that littered her dining space, Shar got out her phone and sent off a text through the stars, jabbing the keys with a viciousness she felt unable to put into words.

 _Come quickly_ , it read, Shar shamelessly ignoring the shorthand expressions her academy friends had tried fruitlessly to install within her _. Blonko needs you and is being too stubborn and sullen to admit it. Rest assured, it is all the fault of our Father. He knows about you two. Blonko was an idiot and split the peas to the whole family._

She wasn’t sure what time it was on Earth, but hopefully Ben wasn’t too immersed in some new video game. Either way, this text was going to cost her.

She suddenly jumped as she felt a thrum run through her hand. Relieved that she had remembered to set her phone to ‘silent’, she scrolled down to see Ben’s words spring up at her, flooding the screen with all the fury of capslock.

**HE DID WAT! UR RIGHT HE IS AN IDIOT.**

She sighed, relieved, and seconds later felt another vibration course through her fingers.

**BTW ITS BEANS, NOT PEAS. ROFL.**

She stared down incredulously (she was sure she had got it right!) and snorted as, not five seconds later, her phone shook within her hand again.

**He ok?**

Shar blinked at the lack of capslock, the smallness of the letters striking her right in the heart. They looked lonely somehow, abject and sad. Or perhaps it was the suddenness of their appearance in comparison to the earlier capslock that was doing funny things to her insides. She frowned heavily.

 _No_ , she typed resolutely. _I just said he was not. Have you forgotten how to read?_

A full minute passed after she sent the text off and she sat huddled on the orange cushions Rayona had gently laid out on the floor for her, all of them twisted into the sullen resemblance of the crinkled autumn leaves of Earth. The even let out the familiar snaps of sound as her thighs shifted nervously over their surface and she growled softly, keeping her eyes fixed on the phone in front of her as she nursed it in her fingers, desperately willing it to respond.

It was a good job that Clyde was not here, she thought sullenly. A new recruit much like herself, he was always telling her that her eyes would turn ‘square’ if she stared at the screen too long. And also, apparently, she took on the look of one of the ‘walking dead’ whenever she was texting somebody. He seemed to mean well, but a member of Ben’s family or not, he was truly annoying.

A sudden thrum awoke the nerves in her fingers and she fumbled for the buttons, her heart flipping through her stomach at the thought that maybe she was spending too much time around Ben and Clyde, both.

 **Wow,** she finally managed to read. **Guess all the Rooks share the same annoying sass levels jeez. Thats wat I get for being worried. Look, ill be there, just dont let your dad get you down, k?? Im guessing he’s the problem here anyway.**

She shook her head. ‘You do not know how right you are, Ben,’ she murmured.

 

\--------------------------

 

In the morning, Shar woke to find Blonko still tossing from side to side every few minutes. He was unsettled, troubled by phantoms in his sleep that Shar was not sure how to drive away and so, after throwing an additional blanket over his ruffled form, she drew herself away, to peer out the windows and greet the dawn. Then she blinked.

Out amongst the furrows in the field, was Rayona. And she seemed to be striving to make some new ones. Pursing her lips, Shar pulled herself away from the window, debating on whether to actually go outside and join her.

Because, she and Rayona, they had never been friends. Not properly. She had always been, well, _Blonko’s_. Even now, in her mind, Rayona felt more like her brother’s property, than the old toys and posters he had passed down to Rook Ben. It was a mean, skewed way to view someone, and taking a breath, Shar reminded herself firmly that she was a Plumber. Nearly one, anyway. And that she was better than that. And if she could grow to handle a tentacle monster, then she could certainly grow to handle Rayona!

So she slipped out, feeling the suns above paste her with the beginning of a shimmering heat. And not half a minute later, that same heat had managed to dapple her skirt with sweat. Or was it perhaps just the nerves?

Slightly stiff-legged, Shar marched herself over to Rayona and watched the way she struck her scythe through the soil. And she continued watching, enthralled, as every few minutes or so, the other woman would lean up to dab her fingers against the sweat on her brow, wiping away the residue moisture that collected beneath the familiar crown of flowers on her head. And though Shar had never understood this practise, she could not help but watch as the petals failed to fall beneath these ministrations, Rayona’s fingers carefully and skilfully unhooking the beads of water from her fur with not a trace of violence to their force.

‘How often do you have to re-pick them?’ Shar finally asked, feeling self-conscious and warm in the prime white tuck of her Plumber’s uniform.

‘Every few hours,’ Rayona replied, returning to her steady raking.

Shar watched as the groves in the earth turned deep, failing to turn up any stray Amber Ogia vines. Occasionally there would be offshoots that had fallen from the rock where they grew, burying their way into the ground after an ill-timed collection of wind and rain had managed to tuck them in deep.

‘I don’t think you’re going to find anything,’ Shar murmured, her feelings locked in by the way gold and lavender flowed over Rayona’s form, the stray rays of both suns perching on the very ends of her fur and the hems of her dress. It caused a glittering hash of light to spread over her, arcing out like a thin halo round her shape, but it was only when Rayona blinked and turned to face her, her eyes wide in obvious surprise, that Shar realised what she had said.

‘Forgive my contractions! ’ she gasped, the apology bubbling off the end of her tongue and making her feel rather foolish. ‘I was caught, distracted if you will, by the way our suns seemed to paint you with a gold hue, giving you the appearance of a godde-’ she stopped abruptly, feeling as though she would rather like to swallow her own tongue.

‘Forgive me,’ she said softly instead.

Rayona blinked.

‘Perhaps,’ she offered slowly, a small, almost hidden smile tweaking her mouth, ‘if we both work together, we will manage to find something after all.’

Shar looked at her a moment, wondering if she was reading the metaphor correctly. Then she inclined her head, just a fraction. ‘Perhaps,’ she said, offering up her own smile, ‘you are right.’

 

\--------------------------

 

Minutes, passed, it felt like, but already, Shar’s fingers seemed to slip into their old roles, bluntly hooking the way into the underside of an old scythe.

‘Urgh,’ she said, her nose wrinkling in disgust. ‘This one has rust on it.’

Rayona hooked her boot round the wooden slant of her own as she bent down, mostly to coax free some loose stones that were de-stabilising her new furrow.

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I tend to be more careless with my equipment than Blonko is. ’

Shar looked at her in shock, feeling her fur bristle as Rayona turned to her and offered her a sly wink.

‘You? Careless? But... ’

‘I know,’ said Rayona loftily, ‘with never a hair out of place, I must look the perfect Revonnahgandger female. I hear them sometimes at the market, saying how pretty I look, with all these lovely flowers lining my scalp. Why, I am sure to make some lucky male the perfect wife!’ She laughed low and hard, digging her scythe back into the ground with a vicious thrust.

Shar paused, unsure how to answer the bitterness running through Rayona’s words. ‘If you like,’ she carefully offered, ‘I will no longer describe you as a goddess. Maybe as a fiery snake, with your scales glistening and the jaws ready to snap. Or perhaps as an unsettled spirit?’

‘What, with my fur ruined by my tears, all from weeping over my lost love?’

‘If you like,’ said Shar quietly. ‘You seemed...a little venomous yesterday. And perhaps today as well?’

Rayona was quiet. ‘Yes,’ she said finally. ‘It has hurt, being rejected for someone else. Even more so, now that I know that someone is male and of a different species. Which therefore makes him someone I cannot compete with, not in the traditional sense.’ She sighed, hurt running through her tone. ‘And not only that! In my mind, it means that Blonko truly felt more for him, than he did for me. He risked, _has_ risked the wrath of his family, just because he wanted this relationship to work more than he wanted ours too.’

There was nothing Shar could offer towards that. And even if she could, it would have been interrupted by the slight shimmer in the air, one that drifted out and over a rock not three feet away. Shar felt her cheeks stretch at the sight, the smile between them as wide and full as she could manage. Rayona, however, promptly blew out a breath of frustrated air and threw her scythe to the ground.

‘Oh, what coul-’

‘A teleporter! ’ Shar squealed by means of explanation, clapping both hands together in joy. ‘A long range one! That means-’

‘Yep!’ Said Ben his face blinking out of the shimmer in a flash of green light. ‘The one, the only, Ben Tennyson, is here to stay.’

‘How  _joyous_ ,’ said Rayona dully.

Ben blinked at her. ‘Oh, um, hi Rayona.’

She inclined her head. ‘Hello.’ Then she jerked her thumb back to her house. ‘Your lover has chased me out of my own living space with his snoring. Please do something about it.’

‘Right,’ said Ben, looking more awkward by the second. ‘Yeah. I’ll see if I can do ‘something’ about that.’ Then he ran off, looking slightly panicked.

‘Well,’ Shar offered carefully after a few seconds, ‘if you can jest about my brother’s snoring in public, then perhaps, at least, you are starting to get over him?’

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Rayona. Rejection hurts.


	7. Something Begins to Sprout

 

There was nothing quite like seeing a sibling roll off onto the floor after their significant other had tugged the blanket out from under their clenching fingers.

‘Rise and shine!’ Ben half-sang.

Blonko groaned, rising onto his elbows and bringing his squished face into the light, before he started blinking as a human hand traced its way over the torn appearance of his scabbed-over fur.  For Ben was now crouched down over him, his shadow cutting off the light from showing the worst part of the wound as his smile slowly vanished and cautiously, his hand felt out the bump beneath the fur, fingers catching the strands still entangled with the healed blister of the cut and smoothing them over with something approaching tenderness.

Blonko blinked once more, before leaning slightly into the scattered trails of warmth those fingertips left behind, hissing as the skin contact re-stirred the old hurt. Clarity seemed to rush back into his expression at this, forcing him to lean back and away.

‘Ben! What are you do-’

‘What?’ Ben interrupted coldly. ‘My boyfriend gets part of his face ripped off and I’m not allowed to worry? You never told me your Dad had claws hidden beneath his fur. ’

Blonko stared at him.

‘Is that another Earth expression?’ he asked, sounding lost, ‘because-’

‘No!’ Ben shouted, one fist clenched, as he forced his other hand steady, carefully brushing off a flake of dried blood. ‘You do not get to tell me to ‘relax’ about this!’

Silence. Shar felt it slide between them all.

Then Blonko’s hand came up to caress the back of Ben’s fist, fingers drifting over the knuckles that had been bleached white by their tautness. It was as though he believed that with this simple movement alone, he could pull the blood back into the thin veins beneath.

‘And yet,’ he said, his hand brushing over Ben’s more firmly. ‘I must insist on it, if only for the sake of your blood circulation.’

Ben sighed, pink rushing back to fill his fist as it unclenched slightly.

‘Dude,’ he said. ‘I hate to tell you this, but I really want to punch your Dad right now.’

‘I will not let you, ’ Rook said quietly, ‘but you need not fear. No one will be punching anyone anymore. ’

Ben raised his eyebrows. But there was no real sign of a joke in his expression.

‘I promise,’ Rook insisted, now pressing both of Ben’s hands between his own. ‘No one else will be hurt.’ He hesitated, his eyes sweeping back to Rayona and Shar, before his expression firmed and his head darted down, quick enough to leave a glancing kiss across the back of Ben’s knuckles.

Ben started, his eyes bulging wide. ‘Dude... ’ he muttered, very pointedly not looking at either Shar or Rayona. ‘Your sister is here. And, uh, your ex too.’

‘Not to worry,’ Rayona said, before arranging her fingers in the air so that they could easily wrap round and curl into quotation marks. ‘I am learning to ‘get over it.’’ At Blonko’s gobsmacked look, she added defensively, ‘just because your Father attempts to cut off your family from the Extranet, does not mean that others are equally as successful. My Father has yet to learn how to switch off our intergalactic router.’

Shar felt her lips quirk. ‘And you have been using this connection to watch the television from Earth?’

‘They have been showing re-runs of a show from something called ‘Animal Planet.’ I find the narrator’s voice most soothing.’

To Shar’s pleasant surprise Rayona didn’t sound defensive. Only calm and overly factual.

Ben giggled. ‘Wow. David Attenborough's got game. Attracting all the space babes and all.’

‘Urgh,’ said Rook dully, distaste spreading through his face. ‘Please. Never say something like that again. Or I may just start referring to Gwen as a ‘hot ginger muffin’, even if Kevin punches me for it.’

Shar and Rayona couldn’t help it. The wrinkled horror on Ben’s face was too much. They started laughed, leaning on each other for support and for a while, were quite unable to stop.

 

 --------------------------

 

Four minutes later, there was no cause for laughter at all.

 ‘Can’t I at least go all Toepick on him?’

‘ _No._ ’

Shar paid no heed to the cross whispering taking place behind her. Her attention was fixed on the window, the person outside taking up but a small section of its space and yet managing to swallow up all of her attention. It was Father, his boots pressing out a firm trail over the furrows she had helped Rayona etch out minutes before, and his gaze was fixed steadily ahead of him.

And yet...and yet his back was slightly stooped, his head lowered as though his spine and his neck had not the strength to hold him up properly. It was as though he had aged overnight and despite herself, Shar felt pity stir her breast. For he was still her Father, and she could not help but love him, despite his terrible behaviour.

‘What do you wish to do, Blonko?’ she asked softly.

‘I wish for _him_ to invite me back to the family and to not punch me in the face.’ There was an edge running beneath her brother’s voice, something cold and clipped, like a finely sharpened knife, and though Shar could not begrudge the attitude, she could _wish_ for him to have chosen a better time to express it.

As though reading her mind, Rayona stepped in.

‘That is very helpful Blonko,’ she said calmly, her tone making it clear that it was anything but. ‘But perhaps I, being a neutral party, should go out and greet him? At the very least, I can find out what he wants.’

‘I still say that I should go all Toepick on him,’ Ben mumbled.

‘Then it is agreed,’ Shar said swiftly. ‘Rayona should go and be our scout since she is the only Revonnahgander here who has not been exiled from our family home. And I imagine Ben is the last person our Father wishes to meet right now.’

Ben grumbled something that sounded like ‘I don’t think he deserves a choice,’ and Rook hushed him, all while Rayona sighed, exchanging a long-suffering look with Shar and then, with her hair flying out behind her like a flag of surrender, she strolled out the door.

Shar  turned her head back to the window, watching as, in contrast to her father, Rayona kept her spine straight, her neck breaking against the sky with a wry curve. It was with pin-point grace that she darted out across the furrows before her and came to a stiff stop before Rook Da, uttering a quick greeting that, judging from the growing frown on his face, was not at all traditional.

The conversation after that lasted less than a minute, Rook Da even inclining his head to her a few times before Rayona sighed and turned sharply on her heel. Her expression was blank, like steel, and Shar felt her trepidation grow as Rayona marched her way back into the house.

‘Well?’ she asked anxiously.

Rayona sighed. ‘He wishes to talk to Blonko. I made him swear in the combined name of his parents’ that there would be no violence here. And then I told him Ben was here.’ She sounded suitably proud of herself for this bit of sneakiness.

Ben narrowed his eyes. ‘You are not going out there alone,’ he told Blonko sternly.

‘Indeed,’ said Rook loftily. Then he inclined his head to her. ‘Shar, if you would please accompany me?’

Ben’s mouth dropped open. And in return, Rook stared at him smugly and then rather patronisingly, patted him on the head.

Ben scowled and Rook clambered to his feet, wincing as the light from the open doorway struck the injured side of his face.  And despite his ire, Ben could not help but hiss in muted sympathy while Shar tutted and took the initiative to stride out in front of her brother.

‘Why do you pat Ben upon the head?’ she asked curiously. ‘He is not your pet. Though it is amusing that he has chosen to obey you like one.’

‘It is an ‘inside joke,’ her brother informed her snootily. And then, rather pointedly, stepped round her to be the first to walk outside.

Shar rolled her eyes and followed.

 

\--------------------------

 

Rook Da stared at them both, the age cutting into his face like a vice. Shar could count at least two more wrinkles in his brow than she was used to.

‘You have not slept well, Father,’ Blonko said coolly. His pose was casual, a forced slump in his shoulders that was nothing at all like the respectful rigidity he usually wore when they were in trouble with a parent. It also did nothing to help hide the blotched stain of their Father’s handiwork on his cheek.

‘You are correct, Son,’ Rook Da sighed. ‘You are my eldest and the one who often has to bear the brunt of my expectations. I know that is no easy thing to wear. And for a while, I fooled myself into thinking that this... _relationship_ with your human friend was a way of rebuking this.’

‘Ben is not just a friend, Father,’ said Blonko, a little pity folded in with his tone. ‘If he was, we would not be here.’

‘No.’ A wry smile quirked their Father’s lips. ‘No, we would not.’ He turned to Shar suddenly. ‘Daughter, your words yesterday were illuminating, though I am not fully convinced they were correct. I, the whole family, treated Rook Blonko as though he were broken. I’ – and here he glared down at his fist as though it had betrayed him, - ‘even tried to break him, or break what I saw as an unruly defiance in my rage. But then you turned to us and said he was not. You treated us as though we were the fallen shards in our family instead.’ He shook his head again. ‘How can it be that I, having lived longer than you two, still have so much room to grow?’

‘We all started off in fine soil, Father,’ said Shar gently. ‘As did you. But we have learnt to...’

‘Branch out?’ Blonko suggests, and she threw him a welcome grin.

‘Yes! Branch out! We have sought out new soil to enrich ourselves. Your wisdom is limited by growing in a singular place.’

All three of them grew quiet and Shar swallowed, unsure how to break the silence she could feel clambering up onto their tongues, weighing them down into inactive fear-

‘INVITE THEM BOTH BACK TO YOUR HOUSE FOR DINNER!’

All three heads whirled round to see Ben hollering at them through the open doorway, his hands cupped round his mouth in the hope of extending his shout. From behind him Rayona offered them all an awkward shrug.

‘TRY NOT TO MESS EVERYTHING UP!  THAT WARNING’S FOR YOU, ROOK DA, NOT YOUR KIDS. THEY’RE FINE. BUT YOU’RE GONNA FIND THE UNIVERSE AN UNCOMFORTABLE PLACE WHEN YOU’VE GOT ME TICKED OFF AT YOU!!!’

Blonko’s lips twitched, his face threatening to break out into a look that leaked of abject fondness and Shar found herself fighting down the urge to giggle. Rook Da looked at them all solidly for a minute. Then, as though struck by a stray impulse, he hefted his hands up round his mouth.

‘ _YOU’RE_ NOT INVITED.’

Shar felt herself stiffen as the sheer impossibillity of their Father breaking the tradition that had shaped his vowels, his words, through the entirety of her childhood, dimly aware of Blonko cringing at her side. The only one who seemed unaffected by this taboo, was Ben who yelled out not two seconds later: ‘WHO SAID I WANTED TO COME, GENIUS?’

Shar rapidly found her voice again. ‘Okay,’ she said hurriedly, fear striking her as Father opened his mouth once again; one contraction she could take, but hearing more than that, and from her _Father_ no less, was pushing the strain of her incredulity. ‘Perhaps you should leave now, Father? Mother will want advance notice, after all, if she is to cook something.’

Blonko meanwhile was glancing back at Rayona’s house with a worried expression.

‘Does this mean Rayona will be expected to provide dinner for Ben?’ he murmured. ‘He is a very fussy eater; I am not sure if I feel comfortable placing such an imposition on her.’

Shar rolled her eyes and gave him a decent shove between the shoulder blades.

‘Rayona is stronger than you think,’ she muttered. ‘I am sure she is more than capable of ‘rising to the challenge.’

Blonko gave her a curious look. But said no more on the subject.

 


	8. Reaffirming Your Roots

 

 

Despite what she had said, Shar did not even wish to imagine what the dinner conversation between Ben and Rayona would be like. Stilted, she imagined. Full of surly silences. But then again, she thought, it could be no worse than in here.

She glanced over at her sisters. Shim had yet to change out of her long robes and was rather sullenly tapping her fork against her plate. Shi meanwhile was anxiously reading their mother for cues, looking more worried by the second as the elder Revonnahgander steadfastly took in a mouthful of pie and chewed slowly, her eyes closed all the while. Shar held back a growl at the sight. It was all very well attempting to act placid, but to her this seemed like a typical act of surrender, to just give in and let the awkwardness permeate.

She glared round at her Father and Blonko, both of whom were doing their best not to meet the other’s eyes. And then, before she could lose her temper entirely, Rook Ben piped up.

‘Does this mean Ben Ten can never come inside the house again?’

Shi squeaked. And Rook Da, very carefully, placed down his knife.

‘These things take time to get used to,’ he rumbled slowly. ‘New ideas cannot be implemented overnight.’

Shar tried very hard not to roll her eyes at this. Same-sex relations were hardly a ‘new’ idea in any universe. In fact, they were old, older by far than her father was willing to let on.

‘I can implement a curse,’ Shim muttered, her eyes taking on an excited gleam. ‘I can curse Be-’

‘That does not sound very healthy,’ broke in Blonko, his face taking on a strange expression of appalled fascination. ‘I hope you will not take to wishing ill on others, sister. Experience has taught me that it rarely ends for the one who does so.’ He then paused briefly, before a wry smirk quickly overtook his features. ‘Besides, Ben has a cousin who is very proficient in the mystic arts herself. She might be willing to sent you a few tips, maybe even some books,-’

Shim, whose face had taken on a look of dazzled hope, suddenly struck her palms against the edge of the table to help hoist her out of her seat, her neck craning forward as though this new slant in her stance could help her swallow down Blonko’s words more easily.

‘- IF you desist in trying to actively harm her cousin,’ Blonko finished smoothly, thoroughly unperturbed as Shim’s face fell and she slammed back into her seat sullenly.

Rook Da sighed. ‘Blonko, please. I believed myself to have suffered the loss of two of my children today. Do not actively encourage another to tread down a path I have no hope of following.’

Blonko’s expression twisted in thought. ‘Magic is tricky Father, and not readily controlled. I would rather Shim have guidance, than none at all. But-’ he offered up quickly, on seeing their father’s frown deepen, the wrinkles cutting into his brow at a most alarming angle  ‘I will tell Gwen that if she must send texts, they are strictly to be at beginner level only. Mostly mediation exercises and...maybe the odd levitation spell or two? ’ He bore his teeth in a sheepish grin that fooled no one.

Rook Ben frowned, his hand reaching out to snag on his spoon. ‘I do not think Ben Ten needs protecting against magic,’ he said stoutly, his nose wrinkling with distaste at the sheer thought of such a thing.

‘You would be surprised at what Ben needs protecting from,’ said Blonko flippantly, though there was a slightly grim look in his eyes. But he refused to elaborate, merely lifting his spoon to his lips and raking his teeth across the metal as he swallowed down a mouthful of pie.

Shar shuddered as she heard the clink of his teeth leaving the cutlery. It was a clear sign of his displeasure; he was never usually rude enough to leave behind a mark.

But their younger brother was not to be denied.

‘Shar said you were in love with him,’ he persisted, a curious note entering his voice rather than the more enthusiastic one they were used to hearing. ‘And you said the same; before Father punched you in the face, that is.’

A heavy silence permeated the atmosphere then. And in some ways, Shar felt grateful for it. It felt more ' _them'_ , then any silly clattering of dropped forks and smashed dishes an Earth sitcom might have provided.

Blonko though, was looking decidedly awkward, twisting about on his seat as though he could etch out some new level of comfort from the hard wood resting at his back. ‘I... ’  he started, before trailing off as his panicked eyes found the frozen expression on their Father’ s face.

Shar sighed, eyeing her reflection in her mostly empty plate below. It looked dirty, smudged by an orange paste smeared towards the centre. ‘It is as I said before, brat,’ she said lightly, ‘The universe is large and the difference between our brother’ s relations with Rayona and his new one with Ben Ten is small and petty. Blonko is the same, awkward girl magnet as before. And honestly, having a boy cling to his arm is hardly going to detract from that.’

Rook Da coughed, Amber Ogia-stained spittle flying from his mouth, while Shi started giggling. Their mother meanwhile, simply sighed, raising a napkin against her mouth to dab delicately at its corners, the sight of her now choking husband seeming not to disturb her at all. Even Shim looked as though she was working hard at holding back a chuckle. Blonko meanwhile, looking incredibly nervous, gave his father a hefty slap on the back, the sounds of the elderly Revonnahgander’s retching taking a turn for the worse as he hunched over and spat up a wad of yellow.

‘Why, yes,’  Shar continued, feeling oddly gleeful at the sight of such chaos; it reminded her of a food fight she’d accidently walked into at the academy last week. ‘The girls will probably still coo over Blonko and his new furless-’

‘-They’ll probably think Ben is his pet,’ input Shim excitedly, her eyes gleaming at the very thought. She then burst into a series of excited chuckles as Blonko directed a glare her way.

‘See if I get any magical texts delivered to you now, Sister.’

All in all, Shar decided, perhaps it was just as well Ben hadn’t been invited.

 

\--------------------------

 

‘Sooo, ’ Ben asked, as they stomped back through the doorway of Rayona’s house. ‘How’d it go?’

Blonko’s shoulders slumped.

‘Ouch. That bad, huh?’

Blonko muttered something under his breath, then stomped his way over to Ben. Quickly ducking a faint bow towards Rayona, he turned, before tugging a protesting Ben by the arm out the door.

‘Hey, ow, ow, I need that arm, preferably attached-’

Rayona and Shar watched them go, bemused smiles tugging on both their faces. And yet Rayona’s looked strange, too sharp at the corners, a disheartened gleam in her eyes.

Shar bit her lip, then, rather bravely she felt, she raised both hands round her mouth to form a tunnel with her palms. ‘Be on the alert for the fawning girls, Blonko!’ she called out. ‘I am sure they will hold great interest in your new ‘pet!’’

‘Pet?’  they heard Ben question anxiously, his voice already caught and held steady against the noise of the wind outside. ‘Hey, is this some weird Revonnahgander tradition you haven’t told me about?’  

‘No.’

‘Good. ‘Cos I am not wearing a leash. Or a collar. Seriously, if there’s some weird S&M dynamic going on, I don’t want to know.’

‘S&M? Those pebble-like sweets? I thought they were called M& Ms and...and you were referring to something else, were you not? But...oh. _Oh._ No, I do not think I would like an audience for something like _that_.’

Shar could just picture the look of suspicion on Ben’s face at hearing that comment, as well as the mulish frown that would no doubt settle down there. And sure enough, from out of the open doorway moments later, she heard traces of that same suspicion cloud his voice.

‘Why do you sound as though you’re contemplating it?’

‘ _Hmm._ ’

‘Rook!’

Rayona stiffened, before her shoulders shook. And Shar smiled, feeling triumphant as she saw Rayona stagger forward to turn the door on its hinges, firmly closing off their access to the conversation beyond.

‘A pity,’ Shar informed her. ‘It would have been fun to see where the turn in their conversation led them.’

A laugh, low and dim, bubbled out of Rayona’ s mouth. Then she straightened abruptly, like a soldier. And Shar blinked, caught off caught. Because wasn’t Rayona meant to be the civilian, here?

‘Blonko never teased me like that. He was always the gentleman.’   

Shar strained her ears, leaning forward to catch the soft fall of Rayona’ s voice.

‘He could be impulsive with me sometimes, when he forgot himself. And I enjoyed him then, when he was comfortable enough to show me the less polished surface of his thoughts. But it would never last. And before long, he had fixed his gaze back on the stars. And it sometimes felt as though he were looking far beyond me.’

Shar felt a painful clench at her heart as recognition shot through it. Oh yes, she knew what Rayona was talking about well enough.

‘I do not think anyone can ever really catch up to Blonko,’ she found herself murmuring. ‘The only way to avoid the disappointment might be to race ahead.’

For a moment, a gleeful spurt of vindictiveness took hold of her thoughts, the memory of Rook’ s stern eyes at the dinner table flashing through her head. It was a little silly to wonder, but right now, she couldn’t help but feel as though maybe Blonko was encountering the same problem she and Rayona had run into throughout the years. Because Ben seemed like the type of person to charge ahead, trusting that others would step into the footsteps he left behind. It must have been a struggle and maybe it still was, for Blonko to step into a role he was unaccustomed to playing, becoming the follower instead of the leader, stuck as the sidekick instead of the eldest son who everyone marvelled at.

Rayona sighed. ‘I have never really been fond of chasing after people,’ she grudgingly admitted. ‘And I am not Blonko. I do not have a crowd to follow me, to fawn over my every movement.’

Shar raised her eyebrow. ‘Good,’ she said. ‘Less competition for me.’

Rayona froze. Stared at her.

‘You...’

‘Yes,’ Shar said firmly. The fear was still there inside her, of course, licking at the root of her tongue and making it feel wobbly, traces of it travelling down to shiver at her toes. But she stood firm all the same. ‘Apparently Blonko is not the only Rook you have swayed with your charms.’

Rayona starred at her. Then, slowly, began to smile.

 

 


	9. And Laying Down Some New Ones

 

Time passed. Shar returned to her training at the academy, this time receiving weekly transmissions from Rayona. And it was nice, knowing that for once she had a secret all of her own to keep.

And while, over time, Ben was tentatively allowed back in their family’s house, their father drew the line at having him share the room with any of them overnight.

‘Are humans not related to monkeys?’ he asked snidely, upon seeing Ben collect an extra blanket from Bralla’s arms and almost drop it in a moment of clumsiness. ‘Can they not also sleep in trees without falling and disturbing the rest of the household?’

Rook’s face had closed off at that little jib and he had rather pointedly lifted the blanket from Ben’s arms and guided them both outside into the back of his ship. And there they had spent the night. Rook Da had fumed to think of them sharing the same space, the same blanket no less, but it had warmed Shar’s heart to think of the two of them curled into seats together, using each other’s limbs as make-shift pillows. Or at least she assumed it to go something like that. In reality she supposed there might have been a bit more bickering going on before they settled down.

Either way, neither of them seemed comfortable enough to attend the next harvest. But...

But Shar was there, flowers dazzling her hair, each one picked and pruned by Rayona. The other Revonnahgander’s fingers kept up a glancing dance across her hair as they wove through the crowd, the fireworks scattering across the sky with each twirl they gave, their smiles long and hard under the explosion of colour overhead. The dresses hung long and heavy, disguising each twist of their step and somehow making each movement more erotic, each violent spin they were forced to give to duck round an excited child or adult, flying out into a flare of pink that would have matched perfectly against Rayona’s hair. Or rather, _would_ have.

Shar sighed and tapped against the traditional headdress of gold that weighed down her girlfriend’s skull.

‘Take it off,’ she urged, egged on by the strange glances she was receiving from an Elder nearby. ‘It is hardly fair to have me be the only one unadorned.’

Rayona giggled. ‘You are far from ‘unadorned’’ she said, eyes twinkling. And as though to prove her point, her hands once against caught hold of the purple swipe of Shar’s hair, artfully picking out one of the many white petals that now lay amongst the strands.

Shar shook her head. ‘It is making everyone stare!’ she whispered excitedly. ‘I have never dared to attend a harvest without the traditional headdress in place! Truthfully it is quite freeing and you should do the same!’

‘One step at a time,’ Rayona cautioned her. ‘Not all of us have picked up martial arts as well as you have.’

‘Do not worry,’ Shar assured her. ‘I shall protect you if the staring dares to turn aggressive!’

Rayona looked at her and laughed once again. And Shar grabbed at her hands, wrestled them free of the flowers they were busy gliding against in her hair. ‘Decease scoundrel,’ she said in a mock-strict voice, ‘or I shall have to make up a law in order to arrest you.’

Rayona’s eyes gleamed. ‘Oh dear. How can I refuse an intergalactic officer of the law?’

Shar smiled and promptly dipped her with a flourish that on Earth would have been seen as masculine. But here of course, here it was seen as nothing more than an untraditional and impractical joke between friends.

That would change of course, one day. But for now, Shar decided that she could live with it.

 

\--------------------------

 

‘Are you well, Sister?’ her brother would ask, during each and every future transmission.

‘I am excited!’ she would say, or ‘I am ecstatic!’ But one day, quieter than usual, she knew she would have to confess and say, ‘Brother, I have a secret.’

‘Oh?’ she could picture him saying, his eyes open and wide with curiosity.

And she would nod, then gravely say, ‘yes, for I am romantically entangled with Rayona.’

And...that was as far as she could picture the scenario going. She knew he would not be sad or angry. But perhaps not bursting with joy for her  either. He had first-hand experience after all, of what it meant to love a same-sex partner in their culture. And unlike him and her, Rayona would have to deal with that, stuck on their planet with no easy escape route in sight.

But that didn’t mean they couldn’t try to make it work. Besides, unlike Ben, at least Rayona had fur. She couldn’t imagine what it felt like to kiss someone without it. It must feel like a mutilation of the tongue, pores and flesh open to the taste, the elements, without a glossy coating to hide over the myriad of imperfections; she couldn’t understand Blonko’s taste at all. But then he was, as the Earthlings sometimes said, a bit of an ‘odd duck.’

Either way, she kind of liked it. Keeping a secret to herself. And unlike Blonko, she was determined not to let it be ripped from her until she was ready.

She just had to remain sharp, that's all. Like the word she had moulded herself after, so very long ago.

 

 


	10. Here Come the Brides

 

It happened, of course. At another harvest, another year, both suns long since vanished from the sky.

‘Marry me,’ Shar had whispered, her breath caught in her throat at the way Rayona’s moan slipped out, her throat undulating and her chest moving as though the air inside rose in waves; it was like all of her was liquid, liquid that Shar’s fingers could swirl through and tame. ‘There are seven systems alone, where the ministers of various planets would be willing to officiate a ceremony. I know Blonko plans on doing it the Earth way for Ben, but _we_ do not have to be so limited.’

Rayona had laughed, gurgled, her dress thrown up around her waist as though it intended to shear her shape in half. And yet never, thought Shar fondly, had she looked so beautiful, dishevelled in a way the public might never believe.

‘Limited?’ Rayona had whispered. ‘No, I have never once felt limited in your hands. I never could. But if I marry you, I will have to leave home. Leave Revonnah and the ground I have so loved.’

‘The ground is not the problem,’ Shar muttered, digging her fingers in deep, deep enough to make Rayona arch up and cry. ‘It is the people who walk on it.’

‘True...enough...’ Rayona sighed, her voice faint, as though her scream had used up all her sound. She had enough energy however, to tilt her head to the side and fix her eyes on Shar’s face with her characteristic sharpness. ‘I did not know Blonko and Ben were...engaged?’

Shar shrugged. ‘They are not; but Blonko suspects Ben is working up the courage to ask him. Apparently he lacks imagination when attempting to hide the ring-box.’

Rayona frowned. ‘Humans give their betrothed boxes shaped like rings? I thought they wore actual rings to symbolise their bonds with one another.’

‘Oh they do,’ Shar reassured her, allowing her fingers to stroke down through that gleaming pink hair she loved so much. ‘But they first present their rings to their intended within these little boxes they make for them; I have felt one. They feel soft, like fur. I believe the material is called ‘velvet.’’

Rayona looked her, surprised. ‘Ben asked for your advice on going Blonko a ring?’ she asked, disbelief present in her tone. ‘I mean...how else would you have felt one of these boxes?’

Shar smiled, small and private. ‘Ben is not the only one who has brought a ring. But Blonko, I think, is enjoying watching him stress out. Either he is waiting for Ben to crack and ask him, or, if he grows too impatient, he will simply propose himself and watch Ben ‘lose it’.’

Rayona stared at her. ‘Lose what?’

Shar straightened slightly, before spreading her fingers and arching them out into a sudden push away from her head to mimic the thrust of an explosion.

‘Ah,’ said Rayona, nodding sagely. ‘You mean a ‘freak out.’’

‘Yes,’ said Shar, narrowing her eyes. ‘Of which you do not seem to be experiencing now that _I_   have proposed.’

Rayona laughed, a tinkering sound that seemed to pour straight out of her soul. Then she cupped Shar’s chin with her fingers, the tips ruffling her girlfriend just under the chin so that Shar could not help but close her eyes, leaning into the touch with the faintest snuffle of a purr drifting out under her breath.   

‘My lovely, brave Plumber,’ Rayona said fondly. ‘You are these things and many more. But you have never been what Ben would call ‘smooth.’ Nor are you particularly surprising. I have expected you to ask me this question for quite some time.’ She sighed. ‘My family is smaller than your own. And my father has been leaving me hints recently that I should start to seek a home out of my own. Getting married will serve as a good excuse.’ Her lips twitched. ‘Besides, there are many beautiful flowers all over the various galaxies. I would not mind seeing them and learning how they grow.’

‘Yes, yes!’ said Shar excitedly, leaning forward in her enthusiasm to stroke her thumbs down the sides of Rayona’s face. ‘You can become the prettiest florist in the universe! And there is so much out there, so much I have to show you!’

Rayona smiled. ‘As long as I do not have to fight anyone, I do not mind.’

They both laughed. And then there was a creak and the barn door swung open to reveal Rook Ben staring in at them through the swirling dust motes. There was a brief moment of confusion then, hastened by the crash of the farming scythes as they slithered out to spill against the floor, away from the half-aborted movement Shar made with her feet as she shifted back out of one of the first Revonnahian Kai forms Kundo had taught her, her arms sliding away from her brother's head as though they had never reached out to crush him. She felt a little sick then, as though her soul had been transported into Kundo himself.

But Rayona’s nose simply twisted. ‘Careful, my dear,’ she said, her hands artfully tucking the creases of her dress down so that the material brushed below the line of her hips. ‘You would not want him to receive more of a headache than he is presently experiencing.’

‘Indeed,’ groaned Rook Ben, rapidly burying his face within his hands. And almost as a cruel joke, the night sky behind him lit up with a circular scattering of sparks, the faint pop of the faraway firework giving a humorous slant to the situation. ‘Unthinkable! I have seen a side to my sister I had wished never to see!’

‘Urgh,’ muttered Shar rapidly yanking the rest of Rayona’s dress down. ‘Trust me, brat. I am not ecstatic about it either.’

Rook Ben shook his head again and turned away resolutely. It annoyed Shar sometimes, to see how much he had grown; his body seemed to be charging through its latest growth spurt, forcing his voice into an abrupt pitch that marked the start of his climb into sexual maturity. Blonko had faced a similar development at his age.

‘Please do not go spreading tales to our family,’ she said, attempting to make her tone more gentle. ‘This is not how I planned on you finding out.’

Rook Ben snuck a peek at her over his shoulder and then, very clearly, rolled his eyes.

‘ _Per-lease_ ,’ said her little brat of a brother with a very Earthen drawl. ‘I learnt to hack into the Extranet connection of our neighbours years ago. You and Rayona? Blonko and Ben Tennyson? Nothing either of you have done could compare to some of the things I have seen on _there_.’

It was official. Shar was going to kill him. But first, her Father would probably kill her.

 

\--------------------------

 

‘So,’ sighed Rook Da, fingers firmly massaging his temples. ‘You have been engaging in illicit pre-martial relations with your brother’s ex-lover? And now you wish to wed her?’

Shar looked down at the table. ’Yes, Father,’ she said steadily. Besides her, Rayona clutched hold of her hand.

Rook Da’s eyes caught hold of the movement and he fixated on it for a moment, before he sighed again and turned to his wife.

‘Looks like we are going to have to rely on our three youngest if we wish to experience the joy of being grandparents,’ he remarked wryly to Bralla.

She said nothing, merely raising an eyebrow snidely as if she had expected something like this to happen all along.

Shar bristled. ‘We could always adopt!’ she said heatedly, before she turned anxiously to Rayona. ‘If, that is, it is an option you wish to pursue?’

Rayona narrowed her eyes and gave her a calculating look. ‘You are looking too far ahead into the future. For now, let us worry about your father.’

But Rook Da was glancing between the two of them, a vague brightness in his eyes as his face became worn-down not with the expected wrinkles, but with the startled creases of laugh lines. ‘Ha!’ he burst out with. ‘At this rate I may well be the first Revonnahgander grandparent to have adopted progeny!’

‘The first of two,’ Bralla reminded him coolly, and he looked at her, a little abashed.

‘Wait...’said Shar slowly. ‘You are not...expressing disappointment? Nor attempting to punch me in the face?’

Now he looked even more abashed. ‘No,’ he said shortly, gruffness leaking into his tone. ‘No, daughter, I am not. I have two children who have gone out into the stars and touched things no other Revonnagander ever could. And as a wise young woman once told me, ‘the universe is large’ and the ‘difference’ between one set of ‘relations’ and another is ‘small and petty.’'

He smiled at her and Shar could not help but launch herself across the table at him, wrapping him up in her arms with a tight, taunt fury that embedded itself into her muscles.

He laughed. ‘I see the lack of farm-work has not caused your muscles to shrivel up into dry weeds!’

‘No Father’ she whispered. ‘It seems we have both grown. And I am so, so glad because of it!’

 

\--------------------------

 

‘Aw man!’ Ben complained when she told him. ‘You beat us to it! Urgh, wish I could have been there...I keep picturing his head spinning all the way round like something out of ‘The Exorcist’...’

Blonko gave him a queer look. ‘You wish for my Father to break his neck? Or morph into some owl-like creature?’

Ben narrowed his eyes. ‘I can’t tell if you’re playing with me or if you’ve genuinely never seen that movie,’ he said, sounding a little peeved. ‘You make it really difficult for me sometimes. Besides, if you _had_ watched it, you’d know it only happened because the girl was possessed.’

Blonko happily beamed at him and Ben’s eyes narrowed even further.

‘Well,’ said Rayona fervently, ‘I for one _have_ seen that dreadful film. And I did not enjoy seeing that implausible biological quirk put into action _at all.’_

Shar smiled at her fondly and reached out to smash her into her chest with a one-armed hug. ‘Do not fear,’ she said, voice dropping down into a low, coaxing tone. ‘For when we move in together, I will fill our shelves with films of a far more adorable genre.’

Rayona sighed and Shar felt the fur on the back of her neck stiffen as her fiancée’s fingers trickled up into her hair, resting against the bend of muscle below her skull in order to stroke it as it dropped away from the bone.

‘As long as there are titles like ‘The Aristocats' and ‘101 Dalmatians,’ I shall not complain.’

There was a muted thump and Shar turned slightly from Rayona’s questing fingers to see Blonko sink down further into his seat, his hands firmly covering his face as he groaned.

‘Are you ill, Brother?’

‘Nah,’ said Ben easily, looking a little too amused as he patted Blonko’s shoulder in solidarity. ‘He’s just having to adjust to the thought that his little sister is actually getting some.’

At Ben’s words, Blonko stiffened and let out an even greater groan than before.

But Rayona just looked confused. ‘Get some what? I do not understand why Blonko is having a hernia at the thought of an incomplete sentence. It is bad grammar, certainly, but-’

‘It is a fragmented reference to achieving sexual conquest over another,’ Shar explained swiftly. It felt weird talking about this with her brother present, but it seemed cowardly to back out now. ‘It is one of those odd Earth practises where the words that would give true understanding to the subject matter go unspoken and are only referred to. The understanding is made possible only by social awareness; as it is understood by English-speaking humans anyway.’

Ben rolled his eyes. ‘That is the most convoluted explanation for some of the weirder stuff that happens in my native language,’ he says wryly. ‘And that’s saying something. You could give Rook a run for his money.’ His face twisted into a smile, and his eyes gleamed, perhaps pleased at the way he had thrown another Earth expression into the mix.

Rayona however simply scowled. ‘I am not even going to attempt to untangle the meaning of that last sentence,’ she informed him testily.

‘Please stop,’ Blonko muttered wearily, choosing to finally lift his face from his hands. ‘I am pleased for you Shar. Truly. But could you please refrain from parading your affection in front of me and the rest of our family and reserve it for your honeymoon?’

‘Aww poor Blonko,’ teased Ben, softly running his hand beneath her brother’s chin. ‘Your sister and your ex? Together? That’s enough to make any guy’s head spin.’

‘I am not possessed,’ Blonko informed him, 'and my head will not spin.' But he did relax as Ben’s fingers curled into the fur that dappled his jaw-line.

‘Nah,’ Ben murmured. ‘You’re just adjusting. Like I said before. I was kinda like that when Kevin and Gwen started going out. But I was always careful not to show it to them. And you can do the same now. I have faith in you.’

Blonko’s lips twisted, even as his eyes fought against falling shut, Ben’s fingers griping hold of his chin a little more firmly. ‘Well, I suppose if _you_ exerted some sort of impulse control back then, it will be easy for me to now do the same.’

‘Atta-boy.’

Rayona raised her eyes to the heavens. Or in this case, the kitchen ceiling, finding purchase in the wood panelling overhead. 

‘This conversation is being gouged out by Earth sayings,’ she said. ‘I wish to leave soon, please.’

‘Indeed,’ Shar murmured, seeing the way Blonko was in danger of slumping down entirely into Ben’s hold. ‘It seems we are not the only ones in need of celebratory sex.’

At this, Blonko seemed to remember himself and he straightened with a glare, chin shooting away from Ben’s grasping fingers to leave a small pout to settle on his lover’s face.

‘Shar!’ her brother exclaimed, looking utterly aghast at her daring.

Shar rolled her eyes. ‘Please,’ she said, ‘if you think I am bad, you should glance through the Extranet history of our younger brother. I am sure what I am saying will seem quite tame in comparison.’

Blonko’s eyes widened. But not another complaint was heard from his lips as both Rayona and Shar drifted out of the doorway, their hands being the only anchor between them.

 

\--------------------------

 

‘So you do not wish for a ring?’ Shar teased Rayona later.

The suns were setting down to the west, but the dark kept pace with the light, filling the ground and doing nothing to steal her fiancee’s beauty away from her. No, the light, though dull, faded, and surrounded by the onset of a purple evening sky, threaded its way over Rayona’s fur and dress, casting that same golden glow that had made her the centrepiece of Shar’s sight less than four years ago.

‘No,’ came Rayona’s voice, slipping out as smoothly as she did everything else. ‘I think I will be fine without the tradition Blonko and Ben wish to abide by, so long as you bring me new flowers everyday.’ She turned to Shar with a grin. ‘Or at least, when you are away, you leave me directions to the nearest field or flower store. I would feel... _naked_ without some fresh ones to adorn my head.’

That, right there, thought Shar brutally, was what Blonko had never got about Rayona. That she could be just as sneaky as the rest of them.

‘Oh?’ she asked, feeling a little too much like her brother as she raised a brow. ‘Is that an invitation?’

Rayona’s laugh bubbled out of her and she pressed her head into Shar’s neck playfully like a head-butting kitten. ‘On no. We are getting married and so an invitation is the last thing you should expect. You are not a guest to me anymore.’

No, thought Shar, I have not been, not for years now. And she pressed her head more firmly against Rayona’s own, nuzzling a little deeper into the pink scalp that lined her throat. And for once, the softness she felt was enough, just enough, to make her feel sharp.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Annnnd with this chapter, I feel obliged to drag the rating up. Goddamnit.
> 
> But that's it. The end. Unfortunately acceptance is something you have to work on, rather than unveil and have everything magically be alright. Rook Da's learning and he'll get there, because he loves his children, but I don't know whether he'll ever be a hundred percent okay with it.
> 
> Shar at least, will have an easier time of it, now that's Blonko's forcefully paved the way for her (and she's now forcefully paved the way for him in terms of announcing a same-sex marriage). Also, it might help that Rayona isn't, well, Ben.
> 
> Though I do find it hilarious that I ended up focusing a lot more on Shar and Rayona's relationship towards the end, with Rook and Ben's turning from being the focus to more of an afterthought. Oh well, they're pretty much the 'centrepiece' in plenty of my other fics, so I'm sure you guys can handle it. Plus Shar's the main character in this, so it makes more sense this way.
> 
> Also, I can see Rayona really loving the Aristocats film. She'd find Duchess and the kittens adorable and charming in a quaint kind of way. Not sure what she'd make of Uncle Waldo though. _I'm_ not sure what I make of Uncle Waldo.
> 
> But yeah, going back to an earlier point the Shar/Rayona thing was originally never meant to happen. At all. And then they became a mirror for Rook and Ben, or a foil for what was happening regarding the disturbance in the family. A healthy, peaceful lull or perhaps backdrop for it. Hell, I somehow even received fanart for it! So that was a welcome surprise. 
> 
> Either way, adieu.


End file.
